Targeted marketing, well known in the art, allows a retailer to present products that may have special appeal to an audience that has effectively been “pre-screened.” That is, targeted marketing aims to identify “pre-screened” consumers who are likely to have a high level-of-interest in specific products and services.
One way of identifying “pre-screened” consumers is by the use of “user profiles”. The phrase “user profile,” as used herein, refers to a collection of information that indicates the interests of an associated user, regardless of the collection's form or the manner in which it is stored. A user profile may be associated with a particular consumer and may indicate, for example, that the particular consumer enjoys hiking. Accordingly, the user profile may be used by a targeted marketer to generate an advertisement for the particular consumer regarding an upcoming sale on hiking goods.
It is recognized that the effectiveness of targeted marketing depends upon the quantity and quality of information retained in such user profiles. Accordingly, there is an ongoing need for additional or improved techniques for generating user profiles.